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I am with you yeswedo, I felt as if Casey was hearing the story for the first time, or maybe how it was being told, which seems a definite possibility.

 

I think Casey probably knows that Dan's brother died some time ago (perhaps even knowing that he died in a car accident), but didn't know the details of the drug use and that Sam was doing the drugs at least partly because of his brother's example. [At this point, the nostalgia kicks in and I hear that 70s/80s PSA of the kid telling his dad "I learned it from watching YOU!"]

 

My sister posted something on my Facebook wall that alluded to our tendency to randomly quote song lyrics or lines from Bull Durham. It makes me think of how many people I have in my life who actually understands what "[name] listens to the Starland Vocal Band, so..."  really means.

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One brief, tiny moment of connection between Gordon and Casey- when Dana was on the phone with Natalie, and Nat said "put Casey on for a minute," he was totally on the same page that he needed to just hang up and get on with dinner. Gordon's cheery "thank you!" when Casey handed the phone back was a rare bit of them actually being friendly to each other.

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Wow, Dana and Casey are really bad dates. I thought that the first time I saw this episode way back when (!) and that double date hasn't aged well. What a horror. Casey asking for the time - the exact time -  and upon finding out it's 11 p.m. giving that little "Go Danny!"? If I was Lisa or Liza or whatever the hell her name was, I'd have been out the door right then. 

 

All the drama about taking the night off: presumably, both Dana and Casey are off twice a week. So does this sturm and drang about taking the night off happen on a regular basis? It's the only time we saw it, but it must be a regular occurrence.

 

How could Dan not remember being in Spain? Does he take so many exotic vacations that he confuses them? 

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I do have to defend Dan slightly, since I found out after the series aired that there was an explanation. Apparently, something got cut from the script that included some reference to a European trip during which Dan and his friends took a drunken side jaunt that crossed into Spain (which blows my mind as someone who has only traveled with US and Canada, but give the densely packed geography of Europe is actually feasible). Thus "The Hotel de Espana is in Spain?!" in a later episode. It's almost like me saying that Kansas is not one of the states I've gone to, since I sometimes forget that one night of my conference in Kansas City, MO included us crossing over into the other side of the city for 30 minutes or so.

 

The fact that the whole Bobbi storyline was played for laughs in this ep, only to be retconned in Eli's Coming, irks me, though.

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Wow, that's a pretty important plot point to leave out! I wonder why that got cut? Doesn't make much sense, considering it was something that was going to be referenced later. 

 

It was annoying that Bobbi Bernstein was ridiculed as a nutty nutgirl in this ep, only to later be redeemed, thus making Dan look like a heel. So Dan was only in Spain a very short time, but during that time managed to nail Bobbi? He's quite an operator!

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I totally disliked Bobbi's characterization in Small Town. She is set up as this complete lunatic (complete with screaming and buggy eyes), and the whole misunderstanding could have been easily solved by her telling Dan that she used to go by Roberta, and she looks different now, and gosh, don't you remember the [insert timeframe] trip you and your buddies took and got drunk on Rioja and crashed at the Hotel de Espana? Instead, Sorkin wrote her as a one-off caricature, then decided he liked Lisa Edelstein enough as an actor to bring her back.

 

I swear to God, Lisa (pronounced with a z) and Gordon should have just hooked up and left Dana and Casey to their rudeness. I'm not a Gordon fan by any stretch of the imagination, but he put up with way more from Dana that night than any boyfriend should have to.

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LOVE  this episode, especially the reaction of the crew and "OUR boss, Isaac Jaffee". Don't love the DonnaMonica storyline, but did like Peter Krause's acting as he realized the consequences of his actions.

However, having seen it on FXX last night (or was it this morning), I was jarred by how intrusive the laugh track was-I had forgotten about it so when I heard it was a WTF moment.

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He's talking about you, ya freak!

I told many, many people.

 

2 thoughts on these great quotes.

The "ya freak" was a little cold and rude coming from Dan to Sally.

The laugh track really almost ruined both of those lines

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I'm working from home today and FXX just ran the last 2 episodes of the show.  I haven't watched in years...and I'm sobbing like a baby.  I love this show.  One day I will actually open the complete DVD set I have.

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Seems to no longer be on FXX. I loved catching random episodes at unexpected times

 

I was working from home again Friday and they showed 2 episodes from season 1 (not consecutive eps) between 1 and 2 pm.  Don't know if it's a regular Friday afternoon thing...but I'll find out this coming Friday!  I hope it's on.

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I was working from home again Friday and they showed 2 episodes from season 1 (not consecutive eps) between 1 and 2 pm.  Don't know if it's a regular Friday afternoon thing...but I'll find out this coming Friday!  I hope it's on.

Yeah it used to be on each weekday from 1 to 2 on FXX, but they are gearing up for the Simpsons marathon right now.  I don't know if it will come back after they are done with that or not, but it definitely won't be on this Friday.

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Have any of you seen the new season of Survivor?

 

I bet Dan and Casey would have something to say about it:

 

CASEY: Dan says the Orioles, I say the Yankees. Dan says the Reds, I say the Mets. But, kids, whether you're a Mets fan, a Yankee fan, a Dodger fan, or a Red Sox fan, the one thing we can all agree on is what, Danny?
DAN: John Rocker's a doofus.
CASEY: John Rocker's a big honkin' doofus.

 

 

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Recently noticed that SN was back on FXX and dvr'd a few episodes.

Had a crappy day yesterday, with some clashes with people who claim to be strong/effective leaders.

Watched Six Southern Gentlemen and saw real leadership and made me think that there should be an Isaac Jaffe school of Management!

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I walked into the office of one of my overworked partners and asked if he needed help. He said he didn't know how so I, of course, channeling my inner Sorkin said "I can help. I can make glass tubes." The guy loves Sports Night so he started laughing and I did end up helping. Sports Night can save almost any day.

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October 25 - St. Crispin's Day:  St. Crispin -- or Crispian -- the patron saint of shoemakers, and what would this show be without shoes?  One of Dana's many lamps must light a little shrine dedicated to the saint.  If you can't make it to the lobby of the Hotel Radisson to hear Casey recite the St. Crispin's Day speech, you'll just have to settle for Sir Kenneth Branagh's rendering:

 

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechhenryV.html

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Small Town was on FXX yesterday and I had not seen that episode in a long time. Here is the big question-why oh why is Gordon, Casey or any person attracted to Dana based on how her behavior in that episode. She was obnoxious, scatterbrained and just plain weird throughout the whole "date" in a way I had never seen any other person act in real life or on TV. I had always remembered that she was socially awkward, but her shtick on that date was off the charts. Not Sorkin and Tommy's best stuff. After seeing that episode again, it seems like the "dating plan" was not so out of left field.

And that episode showed again why there should be an Isaac Jaffee school of management since he has a total sense of how to get the best out of talented people.

Edited by AriAu
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The only thing I liked about the dinner exchanges in Small Town was when Natalie said "Put Casey on the phone," then told him to hang up instead of giving it back to Dana. Especially since he just handed the phone back to Gordon, since both of them knew what a PITA Dana was being.

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I always thought Dana's line to Jeremy about his love for Natalie being "pure and chaste from afar" was slightly clunky, but it just hit me this morning that "to love pure and chastely from afar" is a line from The Impossible Dream. Dana hates musicals, but quotes them appropriately when her colleagues are being quixotic. 

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Sorkin must have a thing about cricket, because Jed Bartlet once said "...when someone tries to explain cricket to me, all I want to do is hit him in the head with a teapot."  Jeremy may want to watch himself.

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Sorkin must have a thing about cricket, because Jed Bartlet once said "...when someone tries to explain cricket to me, all I want to do is hit him in the head with a teapot."  Jeremy may want to watch himself.

 

And of course Lionel Tribbey (aka John Larroquette) told Leo he would kill people himself with the cricket bat given to him by Queen Elizabeth of Windsor herself!

The overlaps are famous (or infamous)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78RzZr3IwI

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The overlaps are famous (or infamous)

 

I don't have HBO, so I never saw The Newsroom, save for the random episode I caught during a free preview weekend.  I recently got seasons 1 & 2 on DVD (and am impatiently waiting on S3 - it's outstanding!) and I spent half the time watching them identifying where different scenarios or dialog came from.

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Walked by the TV in our lobby and CNN had all day coverage of South Carolina embarrassing itself by flying the Confederate Flag and of course all of its politicians racing trying to look good off of the flag and all I could think of was...

 

"In the history of the South, there's much to celebrate. And that flag is a desecration of all of it. It's a banner of hatred and seperatism. It's a banner of ignorance and violence and a war that pitted brother against brother, and to ask young black men and women, young Jewish men and women, Asians, Native Americans, to ask Americans to walk beneath its shadow is a humiliation of irreducible proportions. And we all know it."

 

Again, AS had it right, about 20 years ahead of time.

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I've been watching on FXX, and Sorkin's loving (over?)use of walking-and-talking is in evidence. But what strikes me as I watch several episodes in succession is the constant use of repetition. Something like: "I told her about the thing." "She knows about the thing?" "I thought she knew the thing already." "The thing was supposed to be a secret. It's the thing!" "Well, the thing's not a secret anymore." "I don't know why I ever told you about the thing." "I'm usually good at secrets." "Not about the thing."

 

You get the idea. He loves repeating a phrase over and over in successive lines, and when you OD on Sorkin on a bingewatch, it's even more apparent. And when you have a career's worth of his work that uses the same device.

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You say that like it's a bad thing...

Hah! Not good or bad per se (obviously AS is capable of writing a great script), but just when you see these Sorkinese techniques used again and again in somewhat rapid succession, the effectiveness fades. For me anyway. And in its place, my reaction becomes "Oh, that's one of those Sorkin things" instead of thinking that the conversation is compelling.

 

That said, SN started me off watching every Sorkin TV product until midway through the second season of Newsroom. Sorkinese obviously works on me! The American President and A Few Good Men are poppy fields movies for me, as well.

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That said, SN started me off watching every Sorkin TV product until midway through the second season of Newsroom. Sorkinese obviously works on me! The American President and A Few Good Men are poppy fields movies for me, as well.

 

I think the only thing Sorkin has written that I haven't seen is the movie Malice, and I have that on DVD, just haven't ever watched it.  I don't get HBO, so I had to wait for The Newsroom to come out on DVD...I stayed up ridiculously late several nights in a row to watch them all.  And I'd never heard the term "poppy fields movie" before, but after Googling it, I have to agree, those two do it for me as well.

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The Rececca - Dan story does not work as well. First, Dan comes off as quite the stalker as Rebecca has rejected him countless times, yet he still goes down to her office and makes friends with her co-workers.

 

 

Between that and Natalie refusing to let Jeremy break up with her, these people come off as borderline scary when it comes to relationships.

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That's the World of Sorkin for you -- see also Studio 60, among others. I mean, I adore his writing of dialogue, but he has some scary notions of romance (or at least, how to present romantic attraction onscreen).

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Hillary Clinton is scheduled to appear on Jimmy Kimmel's show on Thursday, March 24th.  Peter Krause is also scheduled to be a guest on the show that night.

Why do I have a feeling Casey has received a barrage of texts and calls from Danny, begging his buddy to somehow explain away that secular/non-secular silliness and to make sure that Hillary understands that his co-anchor is not an idiot?   

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So, Josh Malina is doing a West Wing Podcast where they will review every episode. Obviously, he need to do a SN podcast next, but I digress-he mentions in the podcast for the Pilot of TWW that he begged Aaron Sorkin to let him do both shows at the same time!

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Reunion, anyone?

 

 

I mean ‘The West Wing’ was great. I don’t think it had as great a capacity for comedy as ‘Sports Night’ did.”

 

Ok, as long as they promise no laugh track. It is jarringly bad in those early episodes

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"In the history of the South, there's much to celebrate. And that flag is a desecration of all of it. It's a banner of hatred and seperatism. It's a banner of ignorance and violence and a war that pitted brother against brother, and to ask young black men and women, young Jewish men and women, Asians, Native Americans, to ask Americans to walk beneath its shadow is a humiliation of irreducible proportions. And we all know it.."

AND

Quote

There is no right time to say that, ever.

There is somehow always a perfect Sorkin quote out there.

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